Magnotta evidence to be heard in Europe

Paul Cherry, Gazette Crime Reporter06.14.2014

Luka Rocco Magnotta is taken by police from a military plane that left Germany to a waiting van in Mirabel on June 18, 2012. Magnotta is accused of the May 2012 murder of Lin Jun, a Chinese national who was studying at Concordia University when he was killed.

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MONTREAL — Evidence is scheduled to begin being heard in Europe this week in the first-degree murder case involving Luka Rocco Magnotta.

The accused is charged with the May 2012 murder of Lin Jun, a Chinese national who was studying at Concordia University when he was killed.

Magnotta is also charged with causing an indignity to the victim’s body and other charges related to Lin’s death.

Magnotta allegedly killed Jun inside his apartment on Décarie Blvd. and, days later, left Montreal by airplane. He was later arrested in Berlin and is believed to have arrived there via France. Earlier this year, Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer granted permission to the Crown, represented by prosecutor Louis Bouthillier, to gather evidence from witnesses who interacted with Magnotta while he was in both European countries. The process is referred to as a Rogatory Commission and is complicated by the fact France and Germany have laws that differ from how evidence can be challenged by a defence lawyer in a Canadian court of law.

Cournoyer ruled Magnotta’s lawyer, Luc Leclair, should be present when roughly 30 witnesses are interviewed and that Magnotta, who will not be brought to Europe, should be reachable by phone, to his attorney, at his detention centre in Rivière des Prairies during the hearings.

When Cournoyer made his decision in February, the original plan was for witnesses to be questioned in May and June. But the schedule for Quebec’s Superior Court indicates the first hearing will be held this week, in France, on Wednesday and continue until Friday.

Because the rules that govern the courts in both countries are different from Canada’s, media are not allowed to be present when the witnesses testify for the Rogatory Commission.